VAC fun

Last weekend I had a fabulous time with a ton of my PCV friends. Most of them are in my VAC (Volunteer Action Committee, maybe?) but some of them weren’t. It was really nice being able to spend time with some Americans that I hadn’t had the pleasure of meeting yet.

Friday:

I woke up bright and early at 5am, in the 40 degree weather, to catch a bus with some of the other PCVs that are close. We made our way to Coronel Bogado, which is the next town over. We waited there for a few hours because the bus to San Cosme didn’t leave until 9am. We drank maté (tereré’s scalding hot brother) and at chipa to try to keep warm. We finally got on a bus…when I say bus, I really mean glorified tourist van. Once we arrived at the PCV’s house in San Cosme I immediately took a nap. Duh. Later we went to look at the Jesuit Ruins which was cool, and then we went to lunch to have our VAC meeting with some of the Peace Corps staff from Asuncion. This meeting took forever…3 hours of talking about what we like and what we want to change about Peace Corps Training and Support. Get PCVs talking about how to better the program and they never shut up! Later on that night we got to go to an observatory/planetarium where we got to see Saturn through a telescope! It was awesome!!! (did I mention that San Cosme has a ton of touristy little activities?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saturday:

We woke up at about 9am, packed up our stuff and got ready for the day. Our first activity of the day was to stock up on crackers, cookies and other snacks. After that important part of the day we took an hour boat ride to the sand dunes that are in the middle of the river. The boat was full of 17 volunteers and was not reallyyy something you would feel totally safe in with 16 other passengers, plus the driver, but hey…adventures! We arrived and it was actually really awesome. It was essentially a few big hills of sand, but it seemed so out of place and that made it really cool. We spent a few hours there, ate our snacks, and shared some wine. Later that day we all made our way to Encarnacion for a going away party for one of the PCV who has now completed her service. I really cannot even imagine completing service at this point. We got ready and then headed over to her party. There was karaoke and even though I was skeptical at first, I was eventually coerced to sing some old school Spice Girls with a few others. It was fabulous! Then we decided we had to dance so we went to the club that was right down the street. It looked like a normal American club with drinks and a ton of people and very little light, but no one was dancing. Everyone was just sitting around, like that was the normal thing to do. We were definitely not having that so we moved some tables around and made our own dancing space and just decided to get the party started. We were clearly trend setters because about 2.5 seconds later the rest of the club joined in the festivities. Thank god. It might have been awkward to have a group of Americans just dancing by themselves while all the Paraguayans watched. It ended up being a really awesome time.

 

just some Spice Girls karaoke!

 

 

It was a fabulous weekend and I love being able to spend time with my fellow volunteers. Even when you don’t know the others that well, there is already this unspoken bond. We are going through the same experiences, mas o menos, and this brings us together instantly. It also doesn’t hurt that we can have conversations effortlessly. We are a great big happy family and I’m so grateful for all of them!

 

My next adventure will be in Asuncion, the capital, for the 4th of July party at the Embassy. Stay Tuned!